The Lesson (1951) by Eugène Ionesco (Summary)

 

The Lesson (1951)

by Eugène Ionesco

(Summary) 

The Lesson – Summary

On a quiet morning, in a modest, old-fashioned room lined with books, a nervous yet eager young pupil arrives for her lesson. She is eighteen, bright-eyed, polite, and full of enthusiasm. Today is important — she hopes to earn her doctoral degree. Her energy fills the room like sunlight.

The Professor, however, is quite different.

He is an elderly man — thin, formal, stiff in his movements, and slightly timid at first. There is something fragile about him, almost apologetic. His Maid, a practical and sharp-tongued woman, warns him before the pupil arrives: he must be careful not to overexert himself. She hints that this situation has happened before, though she doesn’t explain further.

The doorbell rings.

The Pupil enters cheerfully. She speaks quickly and confidently, proud of her achievements. She claims to know her arithmetic well and wishes to advance into higher studies. The Professor begins gently, testing her knowledge.

At first, everything seems normal.

He asks simple arithmetic questions. She answers quickly and correctly. Addition? Easy. Subtraction? No problem.

But then multiplication begins.

Suddenly, the Pupil falters. Her confidence dissolves. The simplest multiplication becomes impossible. She grows confused, then anxious. The Professor, meanwhile, grows strangely more energetic. His earlier timidity fades. His voice becomes firmer.

Then sharper.

Then louder.

Arithmetic gives way to linguistics. The Professor launches into a bizarre and overwhelming lecture about languages — how they evolved, how sounds transformed, how words were born. His speech becomes increasingly nonsensical, spiraling into absurd explanations. He overwhelms her with meaningless but authoritative-sounding information.

The Pupil begins to suffer from a toothache.

At first, it is minor. She tries to remain polite, raising her hand timidly to interrupt. But the Professor ignores her pain. He continues his lecture, speaking faster and louder. The room seems to shrink as his voice dominates it. His words become less logical, more tyrannical. He demands attention, obedience, submission.

The Pupil’s pain worsens. She clutches her cheek. She grows pale and weak. Her earlier enthusiasm has vanished. She no longer argues or questions. She simply agrees with everything.

The Professor now stands tall and commanding. He shouts strange philological theories. His authority swells into something oppressive. He no longer teaches; he dictates. He does not explain; he imposes.

The Pupil becomes nearly silent.

The toothache spreads — not just physically, but symbolically. It consumes her ability to think. Her resistance fades completely.

Then, in a sudden and shocking moment, the Professor grabs a knife and stabs the Pupil.

She collapses.

Silence.

The Professor, now trembling, seems to awaken from a trance. He is frightened by what he has done. He calls for the Maid.

The Maid enters — but she is not shocked. She is not surprised. Instead, she scolds the Professor for losing control again. It becomes clear: this has happened many times before. The Professor has killed dozens of pupils in the same way.

Together, they prepare to dispose of the body. The Maid counts this as the fortieth victim.

The Professor is nervous about being caught. But the Maid reassures him. She helps him change his armband — suggesting political or authoritarian symbolism. There is a hint that the Professor’s violence is not random; it is connected to systems of power.

Then the doorbell rings again.

A new Pupil stands at the door — cheerful, eager, hopeful.

The cycle begins again.

What the Story Reveals

In this absurd and darkly comic play, Eugène Ionesco exposes the dangers of unchecked authority. The classroom becomes a miniature dictatorship. Language becomes a weapon. Knowledge becomes domination.

The transformation of the Professor — from timid to tyrannical — mirrors how power can corrupt. The Pupil’s journey — from confidence to submission — shows how blind obedience can erase individuality.

And the endless cycle suggests something deeply unsettling:

This is not an isolated event.

It is a pattern.